Thursday, August 28, 2008

Sunday, August 17, 2008

KPTEC (Kobe Precision Technology Sdn Bhd), strongly believes in "Team Work". In the traditional organization structure; development of a new product, process or jigs/fixtures are normally done by the "experts". These experts will be working alone (silo) and incorporate features that are fanciful from the experts’ view. However, when these items are released to production for mass-production purposes, there is a need to fine-tune or customize again to make it practical or feasible. Therefore, we make all relevant parties to be involved in any projects from the beginning. This approach has encouraged the experts to obtain feedback/inputs from the users from the start. The experts are then able to design things that are more acceptable for mass-production purposes.

Self Directed Work Teams (SDWT) is a philosophy, process and system, which promise employee empowerment, discretionary effort and spirit at the workplace. It is also known as HPWS (High Performance Work System).

Background

In early days of industrial revolution, people were organized to work around tasks. Pyramidal structures, inverted pyramid, hierarchical process had contributed to business success in the past – but businesses had to pay a price – in terms of delayed customer responses – decision delays and dent in business bottom line. These were useful only in the past. In today’s world where organizations are investing in training their employees, lack of knowledge is no longer a barrier that existed in the past. Even operators are getting trained and becoming knowledgeable about the industry, working methods, new products and quality.

To keep pace with the new economy and new way of managing operations and people, KPTEC has adapted the following SDWT model

Benefits

* Connected to a common purpose.* Have their responsibilities clearly defined.* Improve Productivity and Quality.* Perform jobs with specific focus on speed, quantity and cost and accountable for results.* Be empowered to fulfil each one’s responsibilities.* Know the standards and be encouraged to achieve excellence.* Receive & give feedback openly.* Respect each other.* Job satisfaction.

The SDWT Journey (Snapshot)

Our journey is divided into three zones:

* Preparation – aligning the leaders and formation of the Steering Committee.* Implementation – awareness training and formation of teams.* Transition – working on empowerment.

KPTEC SDWT Start-up

* Started in March of 2003 by formation of cross functional teaming to create a platform for the employees to work together.* The primary goal of cross functional teaming was to create teamwork.* Two types of teams were structured. o Firstly, the teams shall be called KIT (KPTEC Improvement Teams) + KIT is a problem solving team which uses the 7QC tools o Secondly, KFT (KPTEC Football Teams). + KFT is a high powered task-force to immediately solve an issue or problem.* The SDWT process started in October 2003.* A pilot consisting of 120 (approximately 15%) employees from the total population of 780 people.* Six (6) teams were formed, 4 from the operation, 1 from training, and 1 from technical. These 6 teams went through the following processes:

The award for contribution to an organization went to Mr. Shunsuke Koyama, Managing Director of Kobe Precision Technology Sdn Bhd in Penang, for establishing Self Directed Work Teams - a proven process that transformed his organization with the spirit of ownership, resulting in better quality, productivity, and results

Saturday, August 16, 2008

The Brandon Hall Network has moved to Facebook. The Innovations in Learning Group is for anyone interested in the changing world of learning and learning technology. This group is also for anyone interested in the Brandon Hall Innovations in Learning Conference and the Excellence in Learning Awards. Join the hundreds of others and help create change.

The Brandon Hall Network has moved to Facebook. The Innovations in Learning Group is for anyone interested in the changing world of learning and learning technology. This group is also for anyone interested in the Brandon Hall Innovations in Learning Conference and the Excellence in Learning Awards. Join the hundreds of others and help create change.

Second Life is the best known virtual world environment and has attracted huge amount of interest from the learning community. Thought leaders in training profession have described its potential enthusiastically. Although most workplace learning efforts in Second Life are in the early stages, some intriguing early-adopter implementations exist. This report provides the key information you need to help you evaluate the potential benefits of using this platform. Continue >

Learning analysts have for years been predicting wide adoption for mobile learning. But, until now, this has not occurred. Mobile phone companies are at last seeing cell phones as miniature Web-enabled computers in people's pockets rather than portable telephones. Consequently, smart phone sales are soaring. This report provides you with the key information you need to expand beyond a desktop-based learning strategy towards one where people can learn anywhere, anytime. Continue >

Gaining customers for your products and services is hard. Keeping them as satisfied customers is even harder. Consumers have so many product and service choices now that they'll quickly abandon a company if the quality of its customer service is lacking. Consequently, customer service training has never been more important. This report contains nine case studies and online excerpts of customer service courses submitted to the 2007 Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Awards. Continue >

Extensive evidence suggests that effective learning communities provide important benefits for learners and their organizations. Apart from significant gains in learning, benefits include reducing isolation, enhancing collegiality, increasing job satisfaction, and Instituting new approaches to solving problems. This report provides you with the key information you need to understand and foster virtual learning communities within your organization. Continue>

This report will provide you with an understanding of how new social learning technologies such as blogs, wikis, peer rating of content , and tagging/bookmarking, are being integrated into learning management systems, making the addition of Web 2.0 technologies to your learning strategy easy. Continue>

Your courseware may be well-organized, instructionally sound, and full of “wow” factor, but without the right kind of testing, you’ll never know how effective your learning really is. This report can help you quickly see which tools will be right for your organization. Continue>

Since human lives are at stake, training in the healthcare industry is rigourous, intensive, and critical. Complicating matters, the medical world changes quickly as new procedures, practices, and technologies are introduced at an ever faster rate. To meet these challenges, healthcare has in the last decade embraced innovative learning technologies. This report provides an analysis of how the medical world uses a multitude of learning strategies to improve performance. Continue >

This report provides only the key information busy learning professionals need to know about collaborative learning. What is computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL)? What can CSCL do for training and development? What can collaborative learning do for a business? What software and hardware do I need to implement CSCL? And more. Continue >

Containing 40-60 page profiles of 76 systems, Brandon Hall Research's LMS KnowledgeBase is the most comprehensive resource available to help you compare learning management systems and select the system that best meets your needs. Continue>

Brandon Hall Research is an independent research firm that provides advice and insight on workforce development and talent management technologies, trends and issues.

I would like encourage you to volunteer yourself to be a judge in 2009 Brnadon Hall Excellence. It takes you not more than one hour to judge. You can learn from the participant's work.

Dear laurence:

Thank you for serving as a Judge in the 2008 Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Awards!

The judging is now concluded and the entrants have been notified of their status. The entrants will soon receive your comments as feedback.

THE AWARDS CEREMONY AT OUR CONFERENCE:Winners will be announced at a ceremony and dessert reception at 7:00-8:30pm on Thursday, September 25, 2008, at the Brandon Hall Research Innovations in Learning Conference at the Fairmont San Jose in San Jose, California.

We invite you, if you will be in the San Jose area, to attend.

(You are not required to register for the Conference to attend the Awards ceremony.)

THE CONFERENCE ITSELF:We hope you will be able to attend the full Conference. It promises to be our most successful Conference yet. See the conference program.

A special Awards Judge discount registration price of $895 is available to you as a Judge ($400 off the regular registration price). Register for the conference here.

THE JUDGES SUMMIT AT THE CONFERENCE:We also invite you to attend the Judges Summit that will be held at the Conference on Wednesday, September 24, at 4:00-5:30pm.

This will be an opportunity to discuss the Awards process and make suggestions for improvements.

(You are not required to register for the Conference to attend the Judges Summit.)

We hope you will be able to join us for these events. I look forward to seeing you there.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Free Stuff

Tom Peters is a passionate communicator with many provocative ideas to share. The documents listed here include a number of Tom's most inspiring messages. And they're all absolutely free. Download, print, discuss, dissect, and disseminate to your heart's content. We ask only that you not alter the files, claim them as your own work, or charge for their use.

PDFs require Acrobat Reader which you can download for free from Adobe.

Real People

"Real People" is the shorthand title for what Tom calls "Excellence for the Rest of Us: A Book for Real People, Working in the Real World in 2008." In this manifesto, Tom contrasts the thinking of gurus (like him!) to the thinking of the rest of us ... those who toil in more conventional settings. In Search of Excellence introduces this idea when Tom and Bob Waterman write, "Hard is Soft. Soft is Hard." By that phrase, they are referring to the people things, the soft stuff that's more difficult than the numbers game of business. Tom revisits and expands on this thinking in "Real People."

Cookie Lessons, 24 December 2007

We're re-issuing this column as a holiday offering from tompeters.com. Tom wrote it once upon a time for his column syndicated by the Chicago Tribune, but we think its lessons are timeless. And, what better way for us to recognize the holiday season than to post this article—"Lessons About Life & Enterprise from Baking Christmas Cookies."

XF 50

Tom introduced this collection as his effort to get you to pay "'strategic' attention to what has always been Issue #1 in organizational effectiveness ... from Napoleon to the man in the moon." Namely, cross-functional effectiveness, which will help you "'Deliver Speed,' 'Service Excellence,' and 'Value-added Customer Solutions.'"

"Top 50" "Have-Yous"

The Top 50 Have You [done these things in the last week, day, hour?] list is Tom's reaction to the phrase "Mapping Your Competitive Position." He contends that you should, instead, put some effort to the tasks on his list. In his estimation, they're important to the short- and long-term health of any enterprise, big or small. If so, the mapping will become a secondary issue.

Organizations Serve

Further ruminations on the ideas that led Tom to his "Purpose" screed, below, resulted in this offering—his attempt to lay out the "big stuff." He introduced this rambling piece in a blog titled "To Get Out of Bed. Or Not Get Out of Bed. That Is the Question." You can find Tom's answer in this PDF, "Organizations Serve."

Tom Peters' Purpose

As the 25th birthday of In Search of Excellence approaches, Tom has been pondering what the practice of management is all about—good, bad, or indifferent. He concluded that entrepreneurial capitalism is the strongest force possible for unleashing human potential, and that it depends upon the effective practice of management. And, according to a review of Thriving on Chaos, "Effective management is management that delivers more value to customers and more opportunity for service, creativity, and growth to workers. ... The decent thing to do is also the smart thing." That is, effective management is humanistic management.

After a lot of thought on these matters, Tom came up with this attempt to answer the perennial question, "What's it all about, Alfie?"

100 Ways to Succeed/Make Money: 51-75

This is the next installment in the Success Tips series. It is not as nicely done as the Success Tips 1-50, because that was designed by the folks at ChangeThis. Tips 51-75 is a quick conversion from MSWord to Adobe Acrobat. When we get to 100, we'll have ChangeThis post the second half of the collection, and offer a classier PDF here. But for now, at the request of a member of our community, here is Tom's Success Tips 51-75.

Redux. Redux. Redux.

Tom unapologetically repeats himself and revisits a favorite theme—the importance of saying "Thanks." He asks you to send the PDF to ten colleagues-friends today. Get Tom's "Redux. Redux. Redux." here, and pass it on. Thank you.

Pursuit of Luck

Unofficially called "Getting Lucky," of course. This is a list that appeared in Liberation Management in 1992, in which Tom offers 50 ideas for increasing the likelihood that you'll "get lucky"—in business. Download it below, and find its relevance to your life today. (Don't miss the challenge at the end.)

Cup Challenge

TP's "Top 41" Quotes

As an alternative to New Year's Resolutions, Tom assembled his "Top 41" Quotes to live by in 2006. He offers them to you to adopt if you wish, also. Pick one or two, or use them all. TP's "Top 41" Quotes.

What I've Done This Year

In Dubai, on September 18th, 2005, the head of IIR Middle East, Jessica Sutherland, asked Tom a "simple" question. He pondered it for weeks and gave us this, What I've Done This Year (updated 3 Jan 2006).

The "PSF" is Everything

In the face of outsourcing, automating, downsizing, and all the other possible assaults on your position, Tom gives you tips on turning your company, your department, or yourself into a Professional Service Firm—doing work that makes a difference. Link to PDF. Also available from ChangeThis.

100 Ways

… to Help You Succeed/Make Money, Pt. 1 This is the first half, Success Tips #1-50, of a work in progress. Tom set out to post 100 success tips on the tompeters.com blog, and this PDF includes the first 50. Also available at ChangeThis.

Tom's Big Blog

This Microsoft Word file includes every post Tom wrote for the tompeters.com blog from July 2004 through January 2005. It's a searchable, printable reference for easy reading of Tom's posts. Link to Big Blog.

The Off-Shoring Manifesto

Tom presents 20 hard truths about the inevitabilities, pitfalls, and matchless opportunities arising as off-shoring, automation, and technology permanently change how we do business in the world. This manifesto is also available at ChangeThis.

A Baker's Dozen Eternal Verities

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Strategy. If your business strategy hinges on knowing where you're going, you'll find a very different point of view in Tom's questions and answers about "strategies" for success. Link to file.

Summer04

This compilation of topics on Tom's mind in the summer of '04 features his "Summer of Soul" discussion of the journey to Greater Awareness. You'll also get "10 Good Reasons to Get Up in the Morning," and more. Link to PDF.

This I Believe!

Tom's 60 TIBs. In honor of his 60th birthday, Tom put pen to paper (and fingers to keyboard) and compiled 60 thoughts, one for each year, that captured his professional and, to some extent, personal journey. He wrote about technicolor, audacity, revolution, weirdos, branding, and taking charge of your own destiny, among other things. This manifesto is also available from ChangeThis.